Adil Carcani, 75, a Leader In Albania's Stalinist Twilight

By WOLFGANG SAXON

Published: October 20, 1997

Adil Carcani, the last Prime Minister in Albania's Stalinist era, died last Monday, according to press reports from Tirana, the capital. He was 75.

Mr. Carcani died at the home of his daughter, Lida Carcani, after a brain hemorrhage, the reports said.

He served as head of Government from 1981 to 1991 under the country's first Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha, and his successor, Ramiz Alia.

Mr. Carcani was forced to step down after the first multiparty elections, in 1991. He was convicted three years later of having abused his office but a five-year prison term was commuted to house arrest because of his poor health.

Mr. Carcani (pronounced char-CHA-nee) was born near Gjinokaster, in southern Albania. According to an official biography, he was inspired by Communist ideals at an early age and joined the clandestine Albanian Communist Party in 1942, when he was 20.

He was active in the struggle for the liberation of his country, which was a monarchy until it was invaded by Italy in 1939 and annexed by the Fascist regime in Rome. German forces occupied Albania in 1943 but withdrew the next year.

Mr. Carcani held command positions in the National Liberation Army of Albania and served as a political commissar at the brigade and division level.

After World War II, he was named to a succession of state and party positions. He was a devoted follower of Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist dogma as interpreted by Mr. Hoxha, who eventually broke with the Communist rulers in Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and finally even China.

As doctrinal squabbles turned Albania into one of the world's most isolated countries -- and one of the poorest, Mr. Carcani became a member of the Legislature in 1950 and of the Politburo in 1961.

From 1959 to 1965, he served as general secretary in the Prime Minister's office and Deputy Minister and Minister of Mining. In 1965 he was promoted to deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Like much of Albania's often murderous politics at the time, his elevation to chairman of the Council and Prime Minister was cloaked in mystery and rumor. His predecessor, Mehmet Shehu, died in December 1981 after a shooting incident -- variously reported as a suicide or an assassination -- during a leadership struggle with Mr. Hoxha.

Mr. Hoxha died three years later, but Mr. Carcani was reappointed by Mr. Alia as first secretary of the party.

Popular unrest eventually forced the party to make concessions, including the replacement of Mr. Carcani, but it was too late for the party to maintain control.

In the 1990's the beleaguered Government in Tirana joined the rest of the Communists in Eastern Europe in the history books as the Democratic Party swept into power. But Albania's transition has been more strained than that of most other members of the former Soviet bloc.